Improvement in reels for harvesters



UNITED STATES PATENT QEEIGE.

FREDERICK WYMAN, OF SAN BUENAVENIURA, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN REELS FOR HARVESTERS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 162,329, dated April 20, i675 application tiled February 2, 1875.

To atl whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK WYMAN, ot' San Buenaventura, Ventura county, State ot` California, have invented an Improvement in Mounting Header-Reels; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanying drawings are sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it most nearly appertains to make and use my said invention or improvement without further invention or experiment.

My invention consists in a certain combination of devices by which the belt which drives the reel will preserve nearly a uniform tension when the reel is raised or lowered.

In the ordinary construction of headers, the lever-arm which supports the header-reel atleach end, and by which it is raised and lowered, is pivoted to upright standards at each end ot' the header-frame, and this pivot serves as a center about which the reel moves when it is raised and lowered, while the pulley which drives the reel-belt is below and at the rear of the pivot, so that when the reel is raised and lowered the belt is alternately slackened and tightened.

Various devices have been devised for remedying this difficulty, some ot' which have been successful, but clumsy, and liable to get out of order.

In order to properly describe my arrange nient for remedying this diliculty, reference is had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure lis a perspective view of my device. Fig. Z is an enlarged view of a part ot' the machine.

A is the header-frame, having the standards B B, one at each side, near the front end ot` the frame, as show-n. C C are the lever-arms which support the reel-shaft D at their outer extremity over the sickle. E is the pulley, from which the reel-shaft is driven, a belt, j', connecting it with a pulley, g, on the end of the reel-shaft.

To preserve an approximate relative center of motion for both the pulley and lever-arm, I attach a plate or arm, II, to the lever-arms C, opposite the standards B, and this arm extends downward toward'the lower end of the standards. I then pivot the arm H to the standard, ata sutcient distance below the lever-arm to come in a line between the pulley E and the outer end ot' the lever-arm, so that the outer end ot the levers, in their movements up and down, will describe an arc ot' a circle so nearly equal to the arc of a circle drawn upon a radius -t'rom the center ot' the pulley E to the end ot' the lever-arm that, practically, the tension of the belt is kept uniform at whatever point of the arc the reel is moved to.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The lever-arms C C, having the plates or arms H attached thereto, and pivoted to the standards at a sufficient distance below the lever-arm to approximately preserve the arc of a circle drawn on a radius from the center ot' the pulley E to the outeriend of the lever-arm, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal.

FREDERICK VVYMAN.

Witnesses:

JNo. L. BOONE, C. M. RICHARDSON. 

